1 . “Humans can develop certain abilities we aren’t born with by practicing animals’ movements,” the traditional Chinese Wushu lovers believed in the past — and still do today.
Chinese Five-Animal Exercises, also known as Wuqinxi, are the first complete set of qigong exercises following the movements of animals: monkeys, deer ( 鹿 ), birds, bears and tigers. They were created by one of the greatest doctors in Chinese history, Hua Tuo, more than 1,800 years ago.
The Five-Animal Exercises are well-designed to help blood circulation (循环), and let the energy go smoothly in the body so as to improve the health.
“ The bear movements are good for the stomach. The tiger movements can reduce the pain in the back. The deer movements help reduce the fat around the waist (腰). The bird movements can help keep our knees healthy and the monkey movements can be good for the heart.” said Hua Yi, the 59th inheritor (继承人) of Wuqinxi.
For those new learners, the first few exercises might not go well. You may find it hard to focus. Wear comfortable clothes, keep peaceful in your mind, try to move slowly... Little by little, you’ll feel more and more harmonious with nature. You may even feel you become a tiger or a deer, walking in the forest freely.
These exercises need no tools. You can search online for the videos and practice them at any time when you feel like relaxing your body and mind. Because it’s fun to practice and good for health, Five-Animal Exercises are becoming more and more popular in recent years, not only in China, but also in many other places of the world.
1. Why do people practice Five-Animal Exercises?| A．To fight against enemies | B．To protect wild animals |
| C．To improve the health | D．To make money |
| A．the bear movements | B．the tiger movements |
| C．the deer movements | D．the bird movements |
| A．和谐的 | B．兴奋的 | C．敬畏的 | D．崇高的 |
| A．It’s easy to learn Wuqinxi even for beginners. |
| B．People should practice Wuqinxi on weekends. |
| C．Wuqinxi is becoming worldwide famous. |
| D．It’s difficult to learn Wuqinxi even for beginners. |
2 . Would you like to travel? Here is some advice for you.
Kingsway Hall Hotel
We offer quality service in Kingsway Hall Hotel. This location puts guests in easy reach of many places, such as the British Museum and Piccadilly Circus. Our hotel also has modern Western food, and offers a perfect dining environment. The lounge bar is a comfortable place to enjoy a drink while watching the tourists. There are hundreds of dining choices within walking distance. Non-smoking rooms are ready for guests.
Hilton Docklands Riverside
Located on the bank of the Thames, our hotel is about two miles east of Tower Bridge and 36 miles from London Heathrow Airport. Our hotel has a beauty salon, a flower shop and a swimming pool. The hotel also offers laundry(洗衣店) services, babysitting, shining shoes, and local area transportation.
Windermere Hotel
Located in the center of London, our hotel puts guests within easy reach of London’s well-known buildings. Buckingham Palace and the Royal Parks are just a short walk away. Within 1.5 miles you can visit Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. The theatres, Harrods shopping centre, and the designer shops of Sloane Square and Knightsbridge are all only a short walk away or a taxi ride away.
1. What does Kingsway Hall Hotel provide for its guests?| A．Chinese food. | B．A lounge bar. |
| C．Smoking rooms. | D．A swimming pool. |
| A．It has delicious food. | B．It offers a reasonable price. |
| C．It offers different kinds of service. | D．It is about two miles from London Heathrow Airport |
| A．a storybook | B．a travel guide |
| C．a technical report | D．a fashion magazine |
3 . A little boy told his mother that there was a teacher-parent meeting in his school. To the little boy’s
At the meeting, the people were
The teacher asked
The mother replied, “When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught fire. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of
At this point, the little boy came out running toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He held her in his arms and appreciated her great
| A．enjoyment | B．disappointment | C．surprise | D．sorrow |
| A．sick | B．ashamed | C．afraid | D．tired |
| A．included | B．passed | C．covered | D．shaded |
| A．talk about | B．think about | C．care about | D．bring about |
| A．impressed | B．shocked | C．excited | D．comforted |
| A．in honor of | B．in spite of | C．instead of | D．because of |
| A．hid | B．protected | C．separated | D．escaped |
| A．understood | B．reminded | C．heard | D．learned |
| A．carefully | B．angrily | C．nervously | D．anxiously |
| A．control | B．order | C．danger | D．focus |
| A．helpless | B．hopeless | C．senseless | D．useless |
| A．hated | B．showed | C．wiped | D．touched |
| A．forgotten | B．recognized | C．considered | D．regretted |
| A．honour | B．spirit | C．happiness  | D．pride |
| A．quietly | B．slightly | C．tightly | D．suddenly |
4 . To grow sugary dates in the sand, Siwa’s farmers must first make the desert suitable for farming. As an oasis (绿洲) in Egypt, Siwa has been home to humans for thousands of years. Since ancient times, the oasis has had farms producing some of the most valuable dates in Egypt, and sugary dates have appeared on Egyptians, tables.
The desert environment in Siwa is not quite fit for plant, to grow. For example, the water there contains much salt. However, with local people’s efforts, the Siwa oasis contains complex agricultural (农业的) fields, where date trees, crops and other plants grow in harmony (和谐). That impressed me a lot during my visit to the oasis. To make a new piece of field, farmers first move away the top soil and replace it with a mixture of sand and waste matter from animals. The first plants are medicinal plants. Then, farmers plant date trees and olive trees. These farming skills are passed down from generation to generation.
To grow date trees is demanding. And it takes 10 years for a new date tree to grow up, but once it does, the tree produces generous fruit: around 110 pounds of dates per year. Each farmer picks dates with the skilled hands. They climb the trees using nothing more than a belt. In total, Siwa gets more than 25,000 tons of dates from 280,000 trees per year.
The dates can be eaten fresh, or made dry. Every part of the date tree is important in Siwa, from leaves made into beds and boxes to wood used to build houses. And then, of course, there’s the fruit itself. The dates can be cooked with goat meat or mixed with eggs for breakfast. They can also be mixed with flour, water, and olive oil, and boiled slowly to make a local dessert.
Local farmers once developed many unique date varieties, which their camels carried to Cairo. But later many of those varieties perished. And today only several major varieties remain and some have become quite rare and been at risk. The construction of a road in the oasis made the survival of local agricultural tradition even harder.
1. What can we learn about sugary dates from paragraph 1 ?| A．They have existed for a long time. |
| B．They prefer the desert environment. |
| C．They’re introduced to Egypt from abroad. |
| D．They’re the most valuable fruit in Egypt. |
| A．The great variety of plants grown there. |
| B．The hard but happy life of local people. |
| C．The difficulty in developing the local agriculture. |
| D．The farmers’ wisdom and contribution to farming. |
| A．It is easy to pick dates from the trees. |
| B．It is worth the effort to plant date trees. |
| C．It costs a lot to grow date trees in the oasis. |
| D．It is necessary to develop agriculture in Siwa. |
| A．Improved. | B．Died. |
| C．Became expensive. | D．Remained unique. |
5 . Learning Chinese could be one of the most important decisions you ever made. Chinese is becoming the language to learn in the 21st century. With the world’s largest population and a rapidly growing middle class, China stands to become the engine of the world’s economy in the coming years. This will make learning Chinese very important to people in many industries, or to those of us who wish to visit China or learn about its culture and history.
There is an ongoing effort to modernize the writing system and standardize(使标准化) the language. An increasing number of people learning Chinese are learning Mandarin, so unless you absolutely need to learn another dialect (such as Cantonese), be sure to study Mandarin.
For native English speakers Chinese is one of the most difficult and most different languages to learn. The vocabulary is wholly unfamiliar and unlike anything we know. In addition, in the Chinese tone system, words are said in rising or falling tones, which helps to distinguish them. Furthermore, there is the Chinese writing system—a collection of thousands of individual ideograms (表意文字), or symbols, which represent a word or an idea. These ideograms have no phonetic value—that is to say, we can’t tell how the word is pronounced by how it is written. There is a way to present written Chinese in a phonetic script called pinyin. If you are learning Chinese, you'll be working with this pinyin system, but the beauty of the traditional writing system shouldn’t be passed up(放弃). All these factors make learning Chinese difficult for us. Yet, for a determined learner, there’s always a way to overcome them.
1. Why is learning Chinese becoming more and more important?| A．Chinese engines are very welcome. |
| B．China has the world’s largest population. |
| C．There are more and more rich people in China. |
| D．China has become important to the world economy. |
| A．The author thinks Chinese is as difficult as English. |
| B．The author is interested in the Chinese language and culture. |
| C．Foreign languages can play a great role in industrial development. |
| D．As long as the pinyin system is learned well, one can learn Chinese well. |
| A．The difficulties of learning Chinese. |
| B．The advantages of learning Chinese. |
| C．The Chinese tone system. |
| D．The Chinese writing system. |
| A．The sources of Chinese characters. |
| B．The importance of learning Chinese. |
| C．The advice on how to learn Chinese. |
| D．The difficulties of learning other languages. |
6 . With the new semester about to start, our school is welcoming a group of new international students. We have some apps here that will make your life easier. We hope you will have a wonderful life here.
WeChat is now the most popular social media app in China. Almost everyone is using WeChat. You can send both text and voice messages on WeChat. You can also make voice and video calls. You can also post texts, pictures and video clips. If your friends in your home country have this app, you can also chat with them through voice or video. WeChat is also widely used now as a form of payment which can be used in stores, online, and in other shopping apps.
★Alipay
Alipay is a similar app to PayPal. It was first used on Taobao and now people can still use it as a mobile payment option. You can even use mobile payment at street vendors, so if you have this app, you can leave your wallet at home.
★Didi
Now Didi seems to be the smartest way to travel around. With one tap, a car comes directly to you. Didi is a Chinese car-hailing service app. It has a function called “ride sharing”, which saves a lot of money for passengers. But it does not have an English version, so if you want to use it, you will have to learn some Chinese.
★Pleco
This is one of the top Chinese/English dictionary apps and it covers 130, 000 Chinese words and includes 20, 000 example sentences with pinyin. It is perfect for those who want to learn Chinese, and also for tourists who need to translate words or phrases from English to Chinese.
1. Who are the intended readers for this text?| A．Chinese learners. | B．International teachers in China. |
| C．Foreign students studying in China. | D．Students furthering their studies. |
| A．People can hail a car with Didi in English. |
| B．People can use WeChat to post, call and pay. |
| C．Pleco is useful for tourists who know little Chinese. |
| D．Alipay was originally used to make payments on Taobao. |
| A．WeChat. | B．Alipay. | C．Didi. | D．Pleco. |
7 . It was a cold Saturday night in February. Some 200 New Yorkers carefully made their way to the reservoir (水库) in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the magical snowy owl, who had touched down in the park the week before in what was reported as the first visit there by the species in more than 130 years.
Except for a few excited screams from children, people were quiet — patiently awaiting the owl’s arrival at the reservoir’s north gatehouse. The snowy owl did not disappoint. She flew down from the darkness and surveyed the water and the people holding phones and cameras before taking off into the night to the applause of her many fans. They simply wanted to see this lovely creature whose improbable appearance seemed to signify hope after the lockdown.
New Yorkers who had long taken Central Park for granted felt a renewed love for this rectangle of green in the heart of the big city and, of course, its amazing wildlife. That the park is a beautiful and essential refuge is something that humans have only come to fully appreciate during these recent times of uncertainty.
Central Park was originally planned and constructed during another difficult time in the nation’s history — in the years before and during the American Civil War. Unlike many European parks that had originally been built for the aristocracy (贵族), Central Park was designed as a public space. In its chief architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s words, the poor and rich alike could “easily go there after their day’s work is done” and “stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing of the noise of the streets.”
As spring turns into summer, we see people sitting on the grass or benches — catching some sun, having family picnics, or tapping away on their laptops and iPads. Just being in proximity to other people in Central Park gave us a sense of community — the sense that we would somehow persevere.
1. What did people do in Central Park on that Saturday night?| A．They cheered for each other. | B．They paid their first visit. |
| C．They came for a rare sight. | D．They appreciated a water event. |
| A．Give some examples. | B．Make a comparison. |
| C．Introduce a new opinion. | D．Add background information. |
| A．close to | B．free from |
| C．at a distance from | D．in comparison with |
| A．Find Refuge in Central Park |
| B．Take Your Breath by Snow Owl |
| C．Trace Central Park to difficult times |
| D．Meet an improbable “visitor” in person |
8 . Last month I took my son Tom to see his grandparents in the countryside. When we arrived, my father and mother were so
At lunch table, Tom told me proudly, “Dad, in the yard, our dog ran after a hen. Finally the hen was
Last weekend we visited Tom's grandparents again. I heard Tom
I ran fast and
In fact, in our life, we will do the same as the hen did.
1.| A．special | B．proud | C．happy | D．lucky |
| A．allowed | B．forced | C．invited | D．led |
| A．delighted | B．angry | C．hungry | D．frightened |
| A．suddenly | B．peacefully | C．secretly | D．carefully |
| A．thought | B．worked | C．feared | D．waited |
| A．breaks up | B．sets off | C．takes up | D．shows off |
| A．admitted | B．decided | C．understood | D．failed |
| A．talking | B．laughing | C．quarrelling | D．shouting |
| A．quickly | B．easily | C．excitedly | D．quietly |
| A．ducks | B．villagers | C．kids | D．chickens |
| A．approached | B．faced | C．challenged | D．passed |
| A．contacting | B．warning | C．protecting | D．preventing |
| A．lay | B．worked | C．sat | D．stood |
| A．defeat | B．remember | C．believe | D．change |
| A．brothers | B．parents | C．children | D．friends |
9 . Michael Faraday was the son of a blacksmith. There were four children in his family and, with his father often ill and unable to work, Michael Faraday had to earn his living from an early age. This meant little or no schooling. However, the family belonged to a religious group, and Faraday learnt to read and write at Sunday School.
When he was only fourteen, Faraday found a job as a bookbinder (装订工). He used to read the books he was given to bind and he became very interested in the scientific books, particularly the ones about electricity. His interest soon took a practical path and he began conducting his own experiments. These were very basic because Faraday had to make all of his equipment himself. However, he was very careful and kept a clear written record of all his findings.
One day he was given an entrance ticket to the Royal Institute chemistry lecture, given by Humphry Davy. Determined to work for this great scientist, he sent Davy a job application and included his laboratory reports on the experiments he had carried out. In 1813 Davy offered Faraday a job as one of his laboratory assistants. Faraday learnt quickly and soon was recognized as a very able analytical chemist. Later he went to work at the Royal Institute.
Michael Faraday was, perhaps, the greatest practical scientist of the 19th century. As a chemist, he discovered the benzene (苯), which is now the focal point of chemical study. He also proved the relationship between electricity and chemical bonding (化学键). As a physicist, he invented the dynamo, which led to the later invention of the electric motor. He also discovered the effect of magnetism (磁) on light rays.
1. Why did Faraday attend Sunday School?| A．He had to work for a bookbinder at weekdays. |
| B．He hoped to read many of the scientific books there. |
| C．He would like to learn religious knowledge. |
| D．His family couldn’t afford his normal school education. |
| A．published his great findings on electricity | B．made his own equipment for his experiments |
| C．read many books by Humphry Davy | D．gained his fame as a practical scientist |
| A．bought tickets to attend Davy’s lecture | B．sent his experiment reports to Davy |
| C．went to the Royal Institute to visit Davy | D．offered to do laboratory work for free |
a．A laboratory assistant. b．A student of Sunday School.
c．A bookbinder. d．An analytical chemist.
| A．abcd | B．bcda | C．bcad | D．cbad |
10 . Mr. and Mrs. Gordon were sitting on the sand, reading their magazines. Mr. Gordon was too stingy (吝啬的) to rent (租) a chair. Their twelve-year-old daughter, Sandra, was playing at the water’s edge. Suddenly a huge wave lifted Sandra up and carried her out to sea. Fortunately, a lifeguard (救生员) was on duty and he saw the wave carry Sandra away. He ran along the beach and dived into the sea. He swam quickly to where the girl was, with her head only just above the water, was shouting for help. She was very frightened. When the lifeguard reached her, she struggled with him, as drowning people often did. However, he was a skillful lifeguard and quickly took hold of her and swam with her back to the beach. By the time he reached it, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon had realized what had happened. They had run down to the water’s edge. Neither of them could swim. They just stood in the shallow water, and worried about their daughter. Had the lifeguard reached her in time? Fortunately, he had. “That was quick work, young man,” Mr. Gordon said. He turned to his wife, “Give the lifeguard a dollar.” “A dollar!” Sandra cried. “Dad, how can you give him a dollar! He saved my life. I was half dead.” “Quite right, girl,”Mr. Gordon said, pleased by his daughter’s awareness of the value of money. He turned to his wife again and said, “She’s right. She was only half dead. Give him fifty cents.”
1. What would probably have happened to Sandra if the lifeguard had not been on the beach?| A．Her father would have saved her. |
| B．Her mother would have saved her. |
| C．She would have swum back to the beach. |
| D．She would have been drowned. |
| A．They shouted to the lifeguard. |
| B．They dived into the water. |
| C．Perhaps they were reading magazines. |
| D．They offered the lifeguard money to save Sandra. |
| A．He did not give the lifeguard any money. |
| B．He did not swim out to save her. |
| C．He did not show the lifeguard hearty thankfulness. |
| D．He gave the lifeguard too much money. |
| A．She was safe again. |
| B．She was polite to the lifeguard. |
| C．He thought she did not want him to give the lifeguard too much money. |
| D．She gave the lifeguard fifty cents. |
